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Ordering from Ray


Ed Slonka Jr

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Have a question for all of you out there that have ordered from Ray Wu. I would like

to place an order so I contacted him about shipping which he did reduce with all

that I want to order. He invoiced me and gave me a paypal account.

Is this how most of you do it or do you still go thru Ali Express for the buyer protection?

Thanks, Ed

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I order from Ray all the time. I think I am up to 15 orders. If you pay via AliExpress and something happens it is them that you can go through. If you pay via PayPal and something happens then you go through them. With that said, I always pay through the AliExpress web page. Ray told me it does not matter. But I think it does. Last year Ali shut Ray down for a couple days because someone complained. PayPal cannot shut his business down like Ali did.

Shipping with Ray is always the same. I always order sometime around the first of the month. I generally get notification of shipment around the 15th and my package around the 20th. Only once did it get within one day of Ali canceling the order because of how long production took.

Ray has two AliExpress accounts, Ray Wu and Ray Sun. He is not the only person selling lighting. He needs us and realizes that a lot of us Christmas guys are using him. He has always communicated very well with me.

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Remember, we are currently approaching the end of the roughly 2 week long Chinese new year holiday, so after I placed an order, I realized that, and don't expect an update a few days after it is over.

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I have worked with Ray Wu for years, long before he had his AliExpress account. He is probably one of the most stand up guys in China. In fact, I have worked with him so long he sends me a Christmas card every year...:D

Everyone needs to remember what Ray is...he is just a broker. He doesn't own a factory or actually produce the stuff. AliExpress is the sister site of Alibaba, which is a global trade site used to connect corporatiions with major manufacturing firms in China. Ray is tied in with all those companies.

Let me give you an example, the pixel strings Seasonal Entertainment will be introducing this year do not come from Ray. However, I went to Ray with all the expectations of what we needed to meet our quality standards. Frankly the stuff you can just buy off his "shelf" is just junk. Look at all the problems people are having with the smart strings and how low the quality actually is on them. Ray hooked me up with a pixel string manufacturer in China and they are now producing all the different sizes and shapes for our pixels. That is what he does...he is just a broker. Now obviously because we are going straight to manufacturer we have a much larger quantity that we have to buy in comparsion to what the average consumer is going to want. That is why Ray has created such a great little nitch for himself. Most people don't want to order 1000 pixel strings but if you want 1 or 2, Ray can set that up for you.

Whether you purchased on AliExpress or through Paypal, he is not out to screw you over and will certainly help you with whatever you want or need.

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From what I have read elsewhere, you have to contact him and arrange for a custom quote. That is likely why you see some odd items in aliexpress from time to time.

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When you contact him, he will prepare a quote like this, and once approved will post it as an 'item' on his aliexpress store where you can then buy it. You can easily see customizations here in the custom quote (in this one, RGB color order on the strips), and you can change quantities vs his standard bundles (10 of this; 25 pairs of that; etc). You can also see the reduced shipping vs the list shipping on the individual items.

http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/701799/209843764-525506446/invoice-to-Aaron.html

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Thanks Everybody for the great input and I think this will answer a lot for other guys

too! I did place an order via Paypal. As said, Ray responded quickly and sent an

invoice. I did not think he was going to take the money and run but was just not

sure of the best method to use.

He saved me enough shipping that I could order two controllers instead of one.

So it does pay to contact him. (Sorry no pun intended!)

Ed

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I had read something saying the reason we dont see pixel strings on e-bay and other US Sites is due to copyrights from Philips Color Kinetics.

I know Addafruit has some, usledsupply, and sparkfun - but its pretty limited.

Seems like just the sort of thing that someone would order a case of and do an ebay store. Something MUST be stopping someon from doing that.

I wonder if Gregg knows any truth or details to that.

P.S. I have also ordered from Ray. I have paid with Ali and with Paypal. No issues.

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Giz
Not sure if you ment me on this. Im not sure on this one. I have been pondering on ordering from ray or waiting until cracker starts up his online store. I am looking at getting the most bang for my buck and trying to convert as much to rgb as I can I am looking to trim the budget as much as possible to appease the CFO Aka the wife

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Giz
Not sure if you ment me on this. Im not sure on this one. I have been pondering on ordering from ray or waiting until cracker starts up his online store. I am looking at getting the most bang for my buck and trying to convert as much to rgb as I can I am looking to trim the budget as much as possible to appease the CFO Aka the wife

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